Presentations

This note is about creating presentations. Related to public speaking notes.

A good presentaion starts with an outline. Outline lists topics you will be talking, but they must also have a good flow from topic A to topic B etc. Never show your outline on your slides, it should be a journey.

Focus on whole performance. People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.

Slides are context, not content. You should be able to do your presenation without the slides.

Avoid text on your slides. Only use text with 100pt font size or more. If you are a good speaker, don't need slides at all.

Important stuff goes to the top. Most of the viewers will only see two thirds of your slides.

Don't use bullet points or lists. I know it's hard but you will notice how much engaging the presentation will become. One message per slide. You can have multiple items on slide but avoid list structure.

Dark text on light background. Avoid pure white background and pure black text. But always use dark text on light background, it will be easier to read, no projector can project "blackness".

Don't rely on colors. Frequently the talk environment has suboptimal lightning. User colors but don't rely on them.

Think about the font. Use font with wide character stroke e.g. sans-serif. Increase font size. Avoid centering. Add white space.

Keep your bio short. Two or three sentences about you is enough.

Best ways to start a presentation:

1. Silence: Say few words, silence, say few more words, silence. Show that you are in control. Very effective but harder to pull of right.
2. Reflect past: Consider being a little provocative.
3. Speculate future: Consider being a little provocative.
4. Quote: You get instant credibility. Quote must somehow be related to your topic.
5. Share Something Quite Interesting: People are interested even by random facts. Must still be related to the topic.
6. Tell a Story: People are engaged by stories so you can use them to get deeper connection. Best stories are the ones that are about yourself and show that you are vulnerable.

Examples:
1 = Good evening everyone! (silence) I've got good news for you! (silence) ...
2 = In 1970, Japan owned 9% of the market. Today, they own 37%.
3 = 30 Years from now, your job won’t even exist.
4 = Like ** said, **.
5 = A honey bee beats its wings between 200 and 230 times a second.
6 = Last week I was shopping when...

Best ways to end a presentation:

1. Recap: Repeat the most important stuff.
2. Call to Action: Ask audience to act on something concrete based on the new knowledge.
3. Inspire: Encourage audience to do something based on the new knowledge.